1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a schedule warning system, a schedule warning method and a medium storing a schedule warning program, which are communicated via a network, and more specifically relates to a technique for transmitting a warning to relating persons when a schedule delay occurs.
2. Related Art
In a situation where locations of members of a group who work for a task are dispersed, a system is generally used that manages a work schedule by using a communication system such as a computer system on the Internet or a telephone.
In a case where a warning regarding a schedule delay of an operation or a task is to be communicated to its relating persons, a schedule warning system may be used in which a warning message may be displayed on a computer display of the relating persons who are previously defined, or a warning message may be transmitted as an e-mail. In addition, there is a system that uses dependencies between operations or tasks to identify a relating operation or task, and identifies relating persons who correspond to the relating operation or task, and informs the relating persons of a warning.
In a case where a task manager is assigned to a task and there are relating persons in an organization to which the task manager belongs, a communication may be made in which the task manager and the relating persons are informed of a warning when a schedule delay of the task occurs. In the communication, it is an important object that the following properties are achieved concurrently.    (1) There should be no loss in warning recipients to be informed.    (2) There is no need to inform an unnecessary recipient of a warning.    (3) There should be no delay in informing of a warning, or the warning should not be informed at an inappropriate timing.
In the related arts, however, a warning of a schedule delay is simply displayed on a display. Therefore, relating persons need to periodically check the presence or absence of a delay on the display. Therefore, there may be a loss in informing of a warning because it is not certain that all of the relating persons check it on their display. In addition, there is no restriction in browsing the display, and thus an unrelated person may know about the warning. Moreover, the relating persons who need to be informed of the warning do not always browse the display immediately after a delay occurs. Therefore, there may be a delay in informing of the warning.
(1) In a case where plural persons are assigned as the persons relating to a certain task, it may sometimes be better that warning recipients are informed of a warning depending on role responsibility of each of the relating persons. In the related arts, the persons relating to a task are not plural persons who are assigned depending on their role responsibilities. In the related arts, in a case where plural persons relating to a certain task are assigned depending on their role responsibilities, there is a problem in that a warning is not transmitted to the plural persons who have the responsibilities. Therefore, the person in charge of transmitting the warning has to identify the relating persons through human judgments depending on each role responsibility from some other information source, and define them as warning recipients. This often results in a loss in warning recipients, or a warning transmitted to an unrelated person. In addition, the operation for the judgments and identification requires efforts and time, which leads to a delay of the warning.
(2) A person relating to a certain task belongs to a functional organization or a project organization. It may sometimes be better that supervisors or coworkers of the person are also informed of a warning as long as they hold responsibilities for the task. In the related arts, it is impossible to transmit a warning from a relating person assigned to a task to the supervisors or coworkers of the organization the relating person belongs to. Therefore, the person in charge of transmitting the warning has to review the information of the functional organization or project organization of the person assigned to the task, and find out supervisors or coworkers through manpower and judgments, and define them as warning recipients. This often results in a loss in warning recipients, or a warning transmitted to an unrelated person. In addition, the operation for finding out warning recipients requires efforts and time, which leads to a delay of the warning. Especially “in a case where plural persons are assigned as the persons relating to a certain task,” as described in (1), this problem becomes worse.
(3) In the related arts, warning recipients are simply automatically calculated as relating persons assigned to the task and a warning is automatically transmitted to them, and thus there is a problem in that it is impossible to transmit a warning to a warning recipient depending on each situation. For example, a confirmation by the person in charge of transmitting the warning, or designation whether or not to transmit the warning cannot be made. This often results in a loss in warning recipients, or a warning transmitted to an unrelated person. In addition, the operation for transmitting a warning to intended warning recipients requires efforts and time, which leads to a delay of the warning. (There are an example that a confirmation of warning recipients and whether or not to transmit a warning can be defined before a delay occurs, and an example that they can be defined after the occurrence of the delay and before the transmission of the warning). Especially “in a case where plural persons are assigned as the persons relating to a certain task,” as described in (1), this problem becomes worse.
(4) In the related arts, there is a problem in that it is impossible to define the criterion of a schedule delay for each operation or each task. Therefore, the timing of transmitting a warning may be inappropriate, for example, because the judging criterion of a delay is too early or too late.
(5) In the related arts, there is a problem in that the system cannot support the case where an advance notice of a schedule delay is previously given by a relating person. Therefore, even though an advance notice of a delay is previously given, the timing of informing of a warning is inappropriate such that the warning is not transmitted until the delay occurs.